I think the tree shows (lower right corner) a distinct shadow, so a kind of double exposure, thus camera movement. The bright paths seem different but are actually the same. May i guess the camera was on some table or similar?

Was IBIS on? Timed shutter release or immediate? What was the camera mounted/resting on?

There was camera movement of some kind, which was brief rather than continuous. I'm supposing the trails correspond to the brightest, most visible stars in the sky. Long exposure with sudden movement light-painted the sensor in this squarish pattern. The camera probably didn't quite make it back to its original position. So I'm guessing you had the camera on a tripod and pressed the shutter without setting a timer delay first.

The more I think about this, I think it is all due to movement. Probably from pushing the shutter button. The brightest stars had the movement, then as the camera set still for the duration of the shutter, the rest filled in.

OP should take the RAW and bring up the exposure a great deal. I bet you will see some other trails, all having similar, but not exact shapes.

Camera shake.
There are stars that have lines parallel to the main bright light (bottom of the frame just right of middle, let edge just in from the middle) - I think it is just that most of the stars are too faint for the lines of movement to have been recorded and easily visible.

Just brightened it up a lot and there aren't the lines for the fainter stars. However, the same movement pattern is definitely repeated multiple times, so the 'camera moved then settled' suggestion looks like a good one here.

I guess I hadn't tightened the screws on the tripod's ball head properly before pressing the shutter.

Grab hold of your tin foil hats and tighten up your boots. I have the same experience.

UFO? I can't explain what that is, can't ID the object or the cause of those drifting lines.

However, I shoot a lot of time lapse every year for the past several years. Some go 3 to 6 hours long into the night. My goal is usually Milky Way time lapse, and multi shot panoramas for the horizon shot. The tools were DSLRs with fast wide and ultra wide lenses.

From time to time, I do encounter stuff like comets, sattlelites, meteors, fireballs in addition to the various aircraft that leave trails and blinking lights. And, I shoot on the darkest nights in the darkest skies of the South West areas of the Mojave Desert and Death Valley and in California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.

What brings me to this thread was my own encounter with a similar squiggly line and cluster of lights. While at Vermilion Cliffs Condor viewing area on a dark moonless September 2018 night. I set up the GX85 for some test runs in long duration time lapse. It was only the 2nd attempt at dark night time lapse for this camera. I'd been pretty successful with the LX100, so I figure this one can handle the long exposures and high ISO. The lens a Panasonic 12-35 f/2.8 OIS II. Shutter was 13 seconds, ISO 3200 at f/2.8 12mm. On tripod, no IBIS.

The first time laps on a full battery started at 12 midnight, and ran to 0214hrs. The camera was on a small tripod low on the ground next to the drivers window so I could know when to change batteries. At about 0230 I replaced the battery, and initiated the time lapse.

Once on the computer, I edited and process for the time lapse, and went through each shot to find the keepers (comets, meteors, fireballs, etc...) on the second time lapse on shot 4 were these strange cluster of lights and squiggly lines. The first time ever seeing them. Have no idea what they are or what caused them.

You can see it on both sides of the milky way and above it. Not my best work of the milky way, and not the ideal time of year for milky way, and it was a test run for the GX85.

I have no clue what these are. But, I do know it can't be camera movement, as every thing would have the same pattern of movement. Does the camera see things we can't?

I ruled out several things that could have caused this. Bugs are ruled out because there are no known fire files in this desert area, plus the winds were pretty constant at about 10 mph, and no light source to reflect off the bugs other than the starlight. Choppers are ruled out as they wouldn't have this pattern going on in 3 different locations during the 13 exposure, and would have green and red blinking lights. We can rule out camera movement because there was no ground shake and if there was camera movement all the bright stars would have the same pattern of movement which is not the case here.

Has anyone else seen this pattern of lights on their night sky long exposures?
Let me know what you think, what could these light be?

Grab hold of your tin foil hats and tighten up your boots. I have the same experience.

UFO? I can't explain what that is, can't ID the object or the cause of those drifting lines.

However, I shoot a lot of time lapse every year for the past several years. Some go 3 to 6 hours long into the night. My goal is usually Milky Way time lapse, and multi shot panoramas for the horizon shot. The tools were DSLRs with fast wide and ultra wide lenses.

From time to time, I do encounter stuff like comets, sattlelites, meteors, fireballs in addition to the various aircraft that leave trails and blinking lights. And, I shoot on the darkest nights in the darkest skies of the South West areas of the Mojave Desert and Death Valley and in California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.

What brings me to this thread was my own encounter with a similar squiggly line and cluster of lights. While at Vermilion Cliffs Condor viewing area on a dark moonless September 2018 night. I set up the GX85 for some test runs in long duration time lapse. It was only the 2nd attempt at dark night time lapse for this camera. I'd been pretty successful with the LX100, so I figure this one can handle the long exposures and high ISO. The lens a Panasonic 12-35 f/2.8 OIS II. Shutter was 13 seconds, ISO 3200 at f/2.8 12mm. On tripod, no IBIS.

The first time laps on a full battery started at 12 midnight, and ran to 0214hrs. The camera was on a small tripod next to the drivers window so I could know when to change batteries. At about 0230 I replaced the battery, and initiated the time lapse.

Once on the computer, I edit and process for the time lapse, and go through each shot to find the keepers (comets, meteors, fireballs, etc...) on the second time lapse on shot 4 was this strange cluster of lights and squiggly lines.

You can see it on both sides of the milky way and above it. Not my best work of the milky way, but it was a test run for the GX85.

I have no clue what these are. But, I do know it can't be camera movement, as every thing would have the same pattern of movement. Does the camera see things we can't?

I ruled out several things that could have caused this. Bugs are ruled out because there are no known fire files in this desert area, plus the winds were pretty constant at about 10 mph, and no light source to reflect off the bugs other than the starlight. Choppers are ruled out as they wouldn't have this pattern going on in 3 different locations during the 13 exposure, and would have green and red blinking lights. We can rule out camera movement because there was no ground shake and if there was camera movement all the bright stars would have the same pattern of movement which is not the case here.

Has anyone else seen this pattern of lights on their night sky long exposures?
Let me know what you think, what could these light be?

Click to expand...

What's really weird is that the two are the same squiggly pattern. Like it is some sort of lens flare from a waving flashlight, mirrored in two locations..

What's really weird is that the two are the same squiggly pattern. Like it is some sort of lens flare from a waving flashlight, mirrored in two locations..

Click to expand...

Could be, but I didn't have a flash light or any light source out during that time. It was shot #4 of time lapse. So likely 2 minutes into the time lapse. by then, I was back in the car warming up with a blanket. Also, there's a third cluster on the top of the milky way, with similar pattern. Thus could be a lens flare reflection of some kind.

Now that I look more closely zoomed in, I see a similar pattern of light in the upper left side.

Could be, but I didn't have a flash light or any light source out during that time. It was shot #4 of time lapse. So likely 2 minutes into the time lapse. by then, I was back in the car warming up with a blanket. Also, there's a third cluster on the top of the milky way, with similar pattern. Thus could be a lens flare reflection of some kind.

Now that I look more closely zoomed in, I see a similar pattern of light in the upper left side.

Click to expand...

Yeah, if you were shooting an uwa or fisheye I would quickly call it flare catching a bulbous front element, but the 12-35/2.8 isn't exactly a bulbous lens...

But it must be some sort of flare, it is in the picture 4 times that I can see (one in each quadrant). Perhaps a light from the car? A headlamp? Headlights from far away (I've had this happens, but not showing up 4 times)?

It's camera movement - or maybe IBIS (internal movement). As with the first case, the pattern repeats all over the picture (look very closely), with the brightest objects showing the longest trails. It might be hard to determine why it happened, but I'm quite sure that's what happened. The length of exposure is the giveaway.

So, I think the real question for the X-files is, what moved the camera?

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